Saturday, August 14, 2004

Law - Out of Spotlight, Bush Overhauls U.S. Regulations

"Out of Spotlight, Bush Overhauls U.S. Regulations" is the headline to this lengthy story that begins on the front page of today's NY Times. A quote:

Allies and critics of the Bush administration agree that the Sept. 11 attacks, the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq have preoccupied the public, overshadowing an important element of the president's agenda: new regulatory initiatives. Health rules, environmental regulations, energy initiatives, worker-safety standards and product-safety disclosure policies have been modified in ways that often please business and industry leaders while dismaying interest groups representing consumers, workers, drivers, medical patients, the elderly and many others.

And most of it was done through regulation, not law - lowering the profile of the actions. The administration can write or revise regulations largely on its own, while Congress must pass laws. For that reason, most modern-day presidents have pursued much of their agendas through regulation. But administration officials acknowledge that Mr. Bush has been particularly aggressive in using this strategy.

The Times article also has two interesting graphics. This one, which is quite astonishing, is labeled "Calculating the Cost of New Regulation" and explains:

The Bush administration has imposed lower costs on industry through regulation than any other administration since the government began keeping records in 1987. While some of the costs of regulation are borne by state and local governments, about 90 percent of the burden falls on private companies.

The graphic compares each year of the terms of the past four presidents, from 1997 to 2003, via lines in a bar graph. The source cited is the OMB.

This one is titled "Regulatory Proposals" and lists "some examples of regulatory actions proposed by the Bush administration."